APPALACHIAN SPRING + ALEXI KENNEY

European iconoclasts meet American masters. Composer Franz Berwald—an erstwhile orthopedic surgeon—stood apart from the early Romantic mainstream, cultivating a distinctly eccentric voice with his overture to Estrella de Soria. Sergei Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1, an early work from the so-called "bad boy of Russian music," conjures a dreamlike sound world, interweaving introspective lyricism with flashes of steely virtuosity. Completing the program are two pillars of 1940s Americana: the orchestral suite from Aaron Copland's iconic ballet Appalachian Spring and the probing musical argument of Samuel Barber's Second Essay for Orchestra. - Christopher Anderson-Bazzoli

PROGRAM
90-minute program, includes a 20-minute intermission

Franz BERWALD
Overture to Estrella de Soria

COPLAND
Appalachian Spring Suite

— intermission —

PROKOFIEV
Violin Concerto No. 1 in D, Op. 19
Alexi Kenney, violin

BARBER
Second Essay for Orchestra, Op. 17